A registered investment advisor (“RIA”) plays a critical role in managing the portfolio of an individual investor-client. The advisor must, at the very least, be able to review the asset allocation of the client, forecast the risks and benefits of alternative allocation scenarios, execute trades and transfers of the client's assets, and update the client's personal information. These responsibilities require the advisor to gather and utilize a vast array of data, from general market and business analytics to real-time asset valuation to specific client characteristics.
Often, the diffuse nature of the sources providing this data and the repositories which hold it leads the advisor to rely on a multitude of different providers, each offering a discrete and separate application. These applications are frequently insulated from each other so that they cannot communicate easily or effectively to share information. Thus, the advisor must maintain separate log-in credentials for each application as well as ensure that redundant data across each application does not get out of sync. Also, the advisor must have each application available at his or her workstation, requiring time-consuming installation and configuration of each application.
Some providers offer a single application that purports to cover all of the tasks and data needed by the advisor. However, this type of application normally has a very limited set of functions and does not contain the robust features of the individual ‘best-of-breed’ applications in areas such as customer relationship management (CRM), financial planning, portfolio management, and rebalancing. Some advisors construct customized interfaces between the separate third-party applications they utilize. However, these customized interfaces require intensive modification by the advisor when newer versions of the third-party applications are released.
Therefore, it would be desirable to create a centralized application that can provide one-time user authentication, presentation of data in a common context, workflow connectivity, and synchronous data management across a multitude of discrete third-party applications. Such a centralized application would provide cost savings and work efficiency improvements for the registered investment advisor.